A Guide for Young Professionals - Analytical Chemistry (ACS

Oct 1, 1976 - A Guide for Young Professionals. Anal. Chem. , 1976, 48 (12), pp 989A–996A. DOI: 10.1021/ac50006a775. Publication Date: October 1976...
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A Guide for Young Professionals Entering Industry: A Guide for Young Professionals. Fred W. Billmeyer, Jr., and Richard N. Kelley. xi + 281 pages. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1975. $14.50

Reviewed by Kenneth W. Applied Science Program, of California at Riverside, Calif. 92502

Gardiner, University Riverside,

This is a nicely organized and con­ cise presentation of what can best be described as the "facts of life" relative to pursuing a professional career in in­ dustrial science or engineering. As such, the authors specifically direct their comments toward "young profes­ sionals"—an apparent initial limita­ tion in appeal t h a t is neatly dispelled by the following prefatory statement: "If you are still in the university, at any level from undergraduate through graduate, post doctoral, and young staff member, to the senior faculty member with a well-developed sense of responsibility to the students; if you have recently entered industry b u t haven't yet mastered all its ins and outs, learned all you ought to know about it, found your own place in it to your full and lasting satisfaction; or if you have done all these things but are still young in heart, retaining t h a t im­ portant desire to find out what makes things work and how you fit into the picture, then you are young by our definition." T h e authors could have also included t h a t rather sizable group of so-called career counselors now to be found as a s t u d e n t service at most universities! Rather than trying to cover all types of industries t h a t afford scientific and engineering career opportunities, Bill­ meyer and Kelley have wisely selected the chemical industry as a model, a most appropriate choice in view of their own professional training and experience. In this context, they thor­ oughly cover all aspects from entry level job applications to the character­ istics, responsibilities, and rewards of top management. In effect, this small volume of just some 270 pages is a re­ markably complete handbook of the

ENTERING INDUSTRY R Guide for Young Professionals Fred III. Billmeyer. Jr. Richard Π. Kelley whys and wherefores and the do's and don'ts of getting ahead professionally by really trying. T h e subject matter is presented in 12 chapters, with four supportive ap­ pendixes. T h e first five chapters (110 pages) introduce the reader to the chemical industry. Chapters 1 and 2 are replete with facts and figures cov­ ering such things as the type, size, and distribution of chemical companies, amounts of money spent on technolo­ gy, and salary and manpower usage in­ formation. Chapter 3 is devoted to the niceties of landing a job in such com­ panies, while Chapter 4 covers the nowadays-all-important area of pro­ fessional responsibilities. Appendixes I and II provide appropriate examples of guidelines for professional employ­ ment and the employment agreement in support of these chapters. Matters pertaining to advancement are dealt with in only 10 pages (Chapter 5), and if the book has a weakness, it is t h a t this critically important aspect is given such short shrift. Chapters 6-10 outline the workings of those functional d e p a r t m e n t s in typical chemical companies t h a t do af­ ford career opportunities for scientists and engineers. Included are research and development, manufacturing,

marketing, staff divisions, and p a t e n t functions. This is a most useful and complete treatment and provides a di­ rect answer to t h a t most often asked question by students as to what they might do out in the real world. Chapter 11 is a concise description of management and this reviewer, as a professor of management, was pleased to recognize the works of such famil­ iar, traditional authorities as Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg, Koontz and O'Donnel, and Drucker used as direct quotes and references in this section. In all, this is a very well-written book in which the authors have cer­ tainly achieved their intent. T h e use of some appropriate and popular media cartoons t h a t have decorated more than one d e p a r t m e n t bulletin board provides an added flair! This re­ viewer has no hesitancy in recom­ mending it to all "young profession­ als". Ion Exchange Chromatography. Harold F. Walton, Ed. xviii + 440 pages. Halsted Press, 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1 9 7 6 . $ 3 0

Reviewed by L. S. Ettre, The PerkinElmer Corp., Norwalk, Conn. 06856 This book is the first in a series rep­ resenting collections of the most im­ portant papers of the development of an analytical technique. T h e editor collected 48 papers start­ ing with the 1939 paper of Samuelson on the potentialities of ion exchange in analytical chemistry and ending with the 1973 paper of Davankov et al. on the separation of racemates by means of ligand-exchange chromatog­ raphy. T h e book is organized into 13 parts. After the paper by Samuelson which serves as an introduction, the papers are mainly grouped according to application. Thus, we have parts representing the key papers dealing with the analysis of rare-earth mix­ tures, transuranium elements, iso­ topes, metals, inorganic ions, nucleo­ tides, amino acids, carbohydrates, and nonionic compounds; besides these, papers dealing with theoretical as­ pects, the use of mixed solvents, and

ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 48, NO. 12, OCTOBER 1976 · 989 A

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Books inorganic and special exchangers are organized as separate parts. Each part is introduced by the editor's comments giving the background and importance of the selected papers and their connection with other papers not included in the collection. T h e individual papers are reproduced in the original form. Papers published in a language other than English are reprinted in the original language followed by a good abbreviated translation. T h e reproduction is clear and well readable. T h e only problem is t h a t each page has two page numbers: the page number of the book at the bottom and the original page number of the journal in the running head. This is confusing, and probably the latter should have been deleted. In such a collection it is inevitable t h a t the selection of the papers represents the editor's preference, and one can always debate whether paper X not included would be more important than paper Y which was included. It is true t h a t the editor, in his introduction, always explains the reasoning for his selection and quotes other papers which the reader might look for. I personally found only two serious omissions: the very first paper of Samuelson [Z. Anal. Chem., 116, 328 (1939)] and the paper by M. Lederer [Anal. Chim. Acta, 12, 142 (1955)] describing the first preparation and use of ionexchange papers for paper chromatography. I also disagree with deletion of part of the paper of Spackman et al. describing the first recording apparatus for the analysis of amino acids.

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As mentioned earlier, the reprints are primarily organized according to the application of the technique. Sometimes this is artificial and thus a number of papers which really deal with the technique itself and its improvements, and are using the application only as an example, are lost in the various parts. T h e best illustration for this shortcoming is represented by the two papers of Horvath and Lipsky and the paper of Kirkland which—as the editor correctly points out in his introduction—really represent the beginning of modern high-speed liquid chromatography. In these papers nucleotides are only the model substances the researchers happened to use to investigate the influence of operation parameters on the separation and column performance. In my opinion, these papers and some others should have been included in a special part dealing with the advancement of the technique. This is an important book for everybody active in ion-exchange—and in fact, generally in liquid—chromatog-

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Books raphy. Similar compendiums dealing with the other variants of chromatog­ raphy would be most welcome. Statistical Methods for Engineers and Scientists, Vol. 15. Robert M. Bethea, Benjamin S. Duran, and Thomas L. Boullion. xxi + 583 pages. Marcel Dekker, Inc., 270 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1975. $25.50

Reviewed by David S. Chambers, De­ partment of Statistics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn. 37916 This book joins a growing number designed for the increasing market in undergraduate engineering and physi­ cal science. T h e content is similar to t h a t of Walpole and Myers' "Probabil­ ity and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists" and Freund and Miller's "Probability and Statistics for Engi­ neers". T h e objective is to provide a basic course in methods. T h e topics are many and varied, extending from basic probability through regression and experimental design. T h e book makes no pretense to heavy involve­ ment in the development of theory; it is intended as a source of methods useful to its readers, together with some explanation of the way to use these methods. T h e authors provide convenient instructions as to which topics should be omitted in the event only one semester is available; it is ex­ pected t h a t the entire book will be covered in two quarters. Many examples are included in the text material, and numerous problems at the end of each chapter have been selected from the literature in science and engineering, providing a decided "applied" flavor. Sources of these problems are frequently cited. A good introductory year of college m a t h e ­ matics should be sufficient prepara­ tion, and no previous statistics is as­ sumed. There is an appendix on ma­ trix algebra useful for the regression discussion. The format is the usual one for Marcel Dekker. If one wishes a book to use in a pragmatic course in statis­ tics, this text might well be consid­ ered. In the hands of a trained and ex­ perienced instructor, it can be the basis for a satisfactory methods course. T h e book is in obvious need of more careful editing, and it is hoped t h a t needed changes can be made through the use of an errata sheet and alter­ ations in subsequent printings. On ini­ tial reading, errors ranging from mis­ spelled words to confusing statements were noted on approximately 25 pages (about a 4% error rate). Some exam­ ples are cited. Page 123, line 5: "How-

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Books ever, σ2/η tends to zero as η tends to μ . . .". T h e use of a\fn instead of al \/n in several places on the same page. T h e statement on page 181, line 9 that the hypothesis H„ is not reject­ ed a t the 99% significance level (the 1% level is intended). T h e insistence on the use of a representative sample (pages 2 and 94) when a random sam­ ple is meant. On page 99 it is stated t h a t data which fluctuate over a wide range will have a large variance (true) and t h a t a large variance indicates data have a wide spread about the mean (true). T h e authors then state t h a t if the sample values are very close together, the sample variance will be quite small (true). They then state t h a t the latter case is highly desirable. T h e meaning is not clear. Is the advice to draw a sample so t h a t the values are close to­ gether? If so, what about the principle of random sampling? Or does it refer to a compact population with a small variance? If so, sampling is not in­ volved. Such offhand advice to the reader leads to reader difficulty. More careful writing will be beneficial. It is obvious t h a t the authors have vast experience in applying statistical methods to engineering and scientific data. Use of this text might well be considered by others equally experi­ enced. Unfortunately, the reviewer has not had an opportunity to teach from the book, and t h a t is the only way one can become totally aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Chromatographic Analysis of the Envi­

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994 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 48, NO. 12, OCTOBER 1976

ronment. Robert L. Grob, Ed. χ + 734 pages. Marcel Dekker, Inc., 270 Madi­ son Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1975. $49.50 Reviewed by Robert K. Stevens, At­ mospheric Instrumentation Branch, U.S. Environmental Protection Agen­ cy, Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27711 This book with contributions from 19 scientists from academic, govern­ ment, and industrial laboratories is highly recommended for individuals who are involved in measuring trace contaminants in our environment. T h e text is an up-to-date survey of gas, liquid, paper, thin-layer, and ionexchange techniques for air, soil, water, and waste samples. Despite the wide range of topics covered, the authors are largely suc­ cessful in presenting a comprehensive review of chromatographic procedures related to environmental analysis. This reviewer was particularly im­ pressed with the section on air pollu­ tion by Robert S. Braman and the sec-

Books tion on thin-layer chromatographic analysis in air pollution by Daniel F. Bender and W. C. Elbert. These sections contained considerable detail and discussion of GC and thin-layer methods for a variety of pollutants. T h e reviews contained enough detail of the original work to make it easy for the reader to select the best method for a particular analytical problem. T h e chapters dealing with soil and waste analysis contained valuable information on the types of substances t h a t generally occur in these media and the chromatographic methods t h a t have been employed for their analysis. There is some theoretical discussion; however, the emphasis is on the practical application of chromatographic principles to analytical problems. For example, several of the chapters provide valuable and detailed information on calibration of GC's which is often overlooked in some reviews. Chapter 1 deals with the theory and practice of chromatography, is well organized, and is an excellent primer for beginning chromatographers. Although the book is generally free

from errors, the reviewer found to his dismay t h a t his initials had been changed from R. K. to R. H. (Réf. 55, Chapter 2) and t h a t O'Keeffe was misspelled in Ref. 55, Chapter 2.

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computers are and how they differ from other computer products from a user's point of view, and ultimately to enable the reader to develop the capa­ bility to select the right microcompu­ ter for the particular application at hand. Since the book does not assume any prior contact with computers on the part of the reader, basic concepts are covered in considerable detail. Emission Spectroscopy. Ramon M. Barnes, Ed. xii + 548 pages. Halsted Press, 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1 9 7 6 . $ 3 5

Compiled in this volume are repro­ ductions of selected papers which have made landmark contributions to the development of emission spectros­ copy over the last 100 years. T h e pa­ pers are arranged in a semichronological order, beginning with a description of the history and literature of spectrochemical analysis. T h e contribu­ tions between 1860 and 1930 are grouped in P a r t I. P a r t II concentrates on the growth of quantitative emission methods stimulated by developments in emulsion calibrations, spark sources, grating ruling and replication, multiplier phototubes, and techniques

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